


Help Me (Hold On To You)

by seekrest



Series: All’s Well That Ends Well (to End Up With You) [5]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (but they can't get over themselves), Alternate Universe - No Powers, College Student Peter Parker, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 18:49:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21002477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest
Summary: Felicia had just laughed at him, saying he was being ridiculous and stupid - that he really must have it bad for the girl if he was hyper-analyzing punctuation.But Peter didn’t even try to argue.He did, he liked Michelle - liked her in a way that he wondered if he had ever liked anyone before. Even with Gwen, he’d never felt so completely drawn to someone before - not feeling butterflies so much as feeling utterly at home with them, feeling comfortable with her even though they’d only known each other for a few months.He didn’t know the big things about Michelle or the secrets she had but Peter didn’t care. He liked her, was fairly certain that she just might like him.And as his leg kept bouncing up and down waiting for her, he wondered if maybe today would be the day he’d finally get to find out.





	Help Me (Hold On To You)

Peter’s leg bobs up and down as he waits in the coffee shop, glancing back to the window nervously. His phone pings, immediately checking it only to see that it was Ned asking if he’d been able to play some video game that had come out over the break. 

Peter sends a quick text back, putting his phone down before picking it up again - almost willing for a message from Michelle to arrive.

She’d agreed to meet him, though Peter wished someone had invented a way for tone to be understood over text by now. He’d read and reread her “okay, sounds good.” over and over again, actually enlisting Felicia’s help to figure out if the period at the end of “good” was a good thing or a bad thing.

Felicia had just laughed at him, saying he was being ridiculous and stupid - that he really must have it bad for the girl if he was hyperanalyzing punctuation. 

But Peter didn’t even try to argue, his leg still bobbing up and down as he waited.

He did, he liked Michelle - liked her in a way that he wondered if he had ever liked anyone before. Even with Gwen, he’d never felt so completely drawn to someone before - not feeling butterflies so much as feeling utterly at home with them, feeling comfortable with her even though they’d only known each other for a few months. 

A part of Peter wondered if it was just because they lived together, Peter learning more about Michelle’s daily habits and quirks in four months than he did of a year and a half of dating Gwen. But there was more to it than that, Peter thought. 

He still didn’t know a lot of her secrets or whatever the hell had happened with Harry but Peter thought that it really didn’t matter - he knew about the things that did.

Peter knew that she liked her coffee black and hot, just like she was - she’d joked once, Peter smiling and agreeing with her even as she winked at him.

Peter knew that she loved psychology and wanted to go into counseling, the idea of medical school something completely unappealing to her - even if she seemed to encourage Peter to do it for himself.

Peter knew that she would eat literally anything, was game to try anything and everything - except for peas, which she hated and would literally eat around - to almost comical effect. If they were in something she ordered, Michelle never considering to ask for it to be removed, saying she didn’t want to make a minimum wage worker’s job any harder than it was.

Peter knew that Michelle - for all her sarcasm and bite - had an intense soft spot for her sister, telling Peter not in words but in the way she talked about her about about the things she wanted for her.

Peter knew that Michelle loved her parents, even if she hadn’t known much about his - because he always redirected the question back to her. He liked hearing her talk, liked asking her about her life and Michelle - who was funny and smart and kind in a way that Peter wondered if people ever really got to see - would only smile, telling him stories about how her parents had met, how much she admired them and liked growing up with them. 

He didn’t know the big things about Michelle or the secrets she had but Peter didn’t care. He liked her, was fairly certain that she just might like him - or at least hoped that she did. 

And as his leg kept bouncing up and down waiting for her, he wondered if maybe today would be the day he’d finally get to find out.

* * *

Peter doesn’t notice how much time passes at first, his nervousness making everything else fade into the background. But as the sun starts to set, Peter noticing that the people around are different than the ones who had been there when he arrives, his eyebrows furrow.

He checks his phone, seeing that there weren’t any messages and realizing for the first time that he’d been there for over two hours.

It hits Peter square in the chest, enough to make him sit back in his chair.

Michelle had ditched him, ghosted him - whatever the hell people called it these days. Peter can’t help but feel hurt by it, especially since he knew how much she hated liars - but there’s a part of Peter that wonders if he deserves this.

Felicia was a friend, nothing more - but Michelle hadn't known that. And after weeks of radio silence, if this was her way of getting back at him, even if it seemed more petty than he had ever imagined her to be - Peter thought that he’d have to suck it up and take it.

He sighs, taking a swig of his long cold coffee as he opens up social media - giving one last pass through before he finally left.

Michelle hadn’t posted anything, which made Peter feel better - even if it felt ridiculous for him to think that. She’d never even texted him back about the gift, Peter wondering if she’d liked it.

Or since she didn’t show up, if she had even opened it.

_ You fucked up, Parker.  _ He can hear her voice in her head, even if he knew it wasn’t her, sending a text to Felicia as he grabbed his coat. 

He put the coffee cup in the bin assigned for it, nodding to the barista as he left - Peter getting the distinct feeling that he’d known he’d been stood up.

Felicia texts back instantly, apologies and encouragement - asking if he wanted to go out and drown his sorrows.

Peter thought about it for a second before replying, asking where she wanted to go. He still didn’t consider himself much of a partier and even if he knew Felicia’s suggestion would be similar to what Michelle’s had been - find someone else for the night - the idea of that made his stomach turn, realizing that aside from that one night stand with the girl from Cantab - he hadn’t slept with anyone since. 

He liked Michelle, even if he’s sure he’d messed it up, enough that Michelle was pissed at him - for good reason, Peter thinks now. 

It was stupid, he’d waited for Gwen only for it to turn out miserably for him.

But as the cold air hits him in the face, Peter bundling up his jacket as he walked towards the subway stop, he already knew that he’d wait as long as he had to - to figure out what might happen between him and Michelle.

* * *

The music is loud, whatever club they were in making Peter feel so much older than he was. Felicia for her part was dead set on trying to get him some action, throwing girls - and a few guys - his way until he almost yelled at her to stop.

“Why’d you even come out if you didn’t want to get with the program, Peter?”

Peter doesn’t have an answer for her, taking another drink of his terrible beer.

Felicia just rolled her eyes and went off into the dance floor, a sign for Peter that he was likely heading home by himself for the night.

The bar - and the way he’s feeling - reminds him of that night in Cantab, even if the surroundings and the people are all different.

He’d been sick without knowing it then, an excuse that Peter couldn’t give himself now. But the days that followed that night - and the way that Michelle had taken care of him - made Peter think he’d been an idiot back then.

If he would’ve just pulled her closer then, would’ve danced with her - kissed her - than he wouldn’t have ran off with a girl, someone that he now couldn’t even remember her name. He might’ve still gotten sick but then he and Michelle would’ve been together - that maybe something more would’ve happened even then.

That maybe the almost hook-up in the apartment wouldn’t have been an almost. That maybe they would’ve already been together by that point, the idea of it making Peter grip his beer tighter. 

He didn’t do any of that, Peter can’t change the past. But it occurs to him that Michelle had to have liked him then - more so than just a friend - even if neither of them had been able to admit it.

Peter wishes he could talk to her, that she would just talk to him so he could explain - about Felicia, the last few weeks, about everything.

But then she clearly hadn’t wanted to, standing him up for coffee and refusing to acknowledge the gift he’d given her. Peter goes to take another drink as he sighs, his eyes going forward before stopping. 

It’s as if the universe heard him, because he sees her - Peter blinking his eyes a few times to make sure it’s not an illusion. 

He rubs his eyes, blinks - but there Michelle was. 

Her hair is pulled back, wearing a shirt he’s never seen before and a skirt that shows off her shape. She looks uncomfortable though Peter can’t begin to understand why.

And then a guy comes up behind her, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Of course she’s with someone. She’s Michelle - smart, funny, kind, generous - hot. Peter had missed his chance, every chance that had been thrown at him and now Michelle had found someone else, was moving on.

The guy whispers something her ear, Michelle nodding slightly as he moved past her and towards the bar. Peter’s frozen, knowing that if her eyes followed him that she would see Peter - but he doesn’t know what to say.

He’s pissed that she stood him up, even if he simultaneously felt like he deserved it. But she hadn’t even had the decency to text him and cancel, something that Peter knows is irrational even as he takes another drink, the alcohol stinging in the back of his throat for no other reason than seeing her now made him feel a little sick.

He liked her, he liked her a lot. And Peter had messed up before they’d even had the chance to begin. Michelle wasn’t moving  _ on _ \- she was never his to begin with. And Peter had been stupid to think that she had ever wanted to be.

Before he goes to move, suddenly filled an urgent desire to be anywhere else but there - she sees him, a look on her face that Peter can’t place.

Her eyes widen, her mouth twisting before she pressed her lips together.

And before Peter can move, he just watches as she storms right up to him.

* * *

Michelle hadn’t wanted to go out but Ashley had been insistent. 

Ashley was her best friend from high school, Michelle spending more time at her place sometimes than she did her own. Ashley’s life was so different than hers in several ways but the thing that appealed to her most was the feeling of belonging - the feeling that she didn’t have to be anyone but herself, that every part of her was valid. 

They’d met at the same private school, clinging to each other in the way that all kids who weren’t part of the majority did - Michelle thinking that of the five black people in her high school, her and Ashley hadn’t really been counted among them. 

It was different, even for them. 

Ashley understood what it was like to be mixed, her own parents being more blended than even Michelle’s were - half Flilipino, half black and Guatemalan. 

It wasn’t the reason they’d become friends but it was something Michelle had come to appreciate - especially the older she got and the further she went into her education. 

It was the struggle of any mixed kid, of any person who was told to choose a part of their identity - told or assumed or pushed to be one thing when you weren’t just  _ one _ .

It was something she’d tried to explain to Harry once, something he had never understood - Michelle not realizing until that fateful dinner at his parents that he never would. 

So when Michelle told her about Peter - everything from the moment they met, to the day at his old apartment, to seeing him with Felicia on the street - she knew Ashley would understand better than anyone else ever could.

That seeing Peter with Felicia wasn’t just about feeling slighted or passed over or about her own weird jealousy. That it was deeper than that, reminding her of seeing Harry three weeks after they’d broken up with a girl she knew his family would say was “more acceptable” than she could ever be. 

Ashley had been understanding, flippant in a way Michelle only pretended to be. For all her fire and sarcasm that she played off with Peter, Michelle wasn’t nearly as open as Ashley was.

“I already told you that Eddie is available. Someday you two are gonna wake up and realize you’re perfect for each other.” 

Michelle had laughed, rolling her eyes as she put on lipstick.

“Eddie and I are and will forever be only friends, united in our love for your dumbass.” 

Ashley had laughed but encouraged her brother Eddie to come with them anyway. 

Her and Eddie had history, had known each other since she was fourteen. But Eddie was like her brother and Michelle knew that he only saw her like a sister. It wouldn’t work between them and she didn’t want it to.

On paper, it made sense to Michelle. It wasn’t the best reason to date someone but it made things easier, a cultural barrier that didn’t have to be breached - even if the makings of a relationship couldn’t rely solely on any one thing. 

It was something Michelle had given up on trying to explain to her friends at MIT, something she told herself she shouldn’t have to after pouring her heart out to Harry only for him to so casually and heartlessly throw it all away.

Yet Michelle decided to go out anyway, still stinging from seeing Peter but stinging more because she hadn’t heard from him. She’d torn open the box as soon as she got home, examining the delicate bracelet and wondering what the hell it meant.

It wasn’t expensive, it looked more like he found it a second-hand shop - something that made Michelle like it even more. But then Peter hadn’t said anything to her since and Michelle was a little more than pissed at the gesture - though she could recognize that this wasn’t Peter’s fault.

Peter couldn’t have known that this was exactly what Harry used to do after any of their arguments, buying her gifts and flowers and trinkets as a way to apologize without ever saying the words.

Peter didn’t know that Harry had never raised a hand to her, never hurt her in that way but with every gift and syrupy lie, made her feel as if she was a possession - just another pretty piece for him to parade around.

Peter didn’t know about the ring that Harry had bought as a way of apologizing for how his parents had acted after they met.

A night of having to hear insults - humiliated over and over again as Harry’s grandmother referred to her as the help, at his father turning his nose at her, saying he didn’t care for “exotic” women, as his mother called her a name so awful that Michelle still burned with anger about it - not just for hearing it, but that Harry has been right there and hadn’t said a word. 

Peter didn’t know that Harry hadn’t bought the ring because he truly cared or because he loved her or wanted to be with her despite what his family said. 

Peter didn’t know that Harry only proposed because he was using her, Michelle feeling horrified that after all the things she had told Harry about what it was like to grow up mixed in a cruel world, all the secrets and insecurities she had shared about what it meant for her to see her parents still face hatred in a world that pretended it was more enlightened than what it was - that he still pushed forward, paraded her around to his parents' place to face relentless racism and verbal abuse - only to propose as a way of trying to send his family a fuck you, for reasons Michelle had neither the inclination or the desire to know. 

She’d been used - miserably and horribly - and when she broke up with him, was tossed away as if it hadn’t even mattered. 

Peter didn’t know how much that had devastated her, ripped her apart and torn up any trust she had in anyone loving her - much less someone who looked like he did. 

Peter didn’t know any of that, nor could he have known what the bracelet - without words, without apology - could mean.

But Ashley did. And while a night out wasn’t exactly at the top of Michelle’s list of things that she wanted to do at the moment - she let herself go with them, let herself try and forget how Harry - and through little fault of his own, Peter had made her feel.

But then Eddie said he was going to look for Ashley, who’d disappeared the minute they got there and she sees him.

Peter - looking dumb and confused and hurt and hot as fuck - at the bar, holding a bottle of beer in his hand that Michelle knew he must’ve hated.

It’s like the fury that she’d held back from Harry, the months and months of anger that she’d let fester all came into focus - channeling straight towards a man Michelle knew deep down didn’t deserve it. 

But Michelle’s pissed, furious and unbelievably hurt - and she marches up to him anyway before she can think better of it.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Peter blinks at her before his eyebrows raise.

“MJ?”

“I mean it, Parker. Are you following me? What the hell are you doing?”

Peter looks dumbfounded again, shaking his head as he lowers his drink. “I’m--I was just here with--”

And then Felicia - fucking  _ Felicia _ \- walks up, green eyes sparkling even in the harsh club lighting. 

“Hey MJ, fancy meeting you here.”

“Yeah, pleasure.” She spits back, looking to Peter. 

“You really doing this? Really?” 

Peter shakes his head again, confusion turning into annoyance. “What the hell is your problem, MJ?”

Michelle laughs, feeling the anger radiate through her. “ _ My _ problem? Are you fucking serious? You know what, no. Never mind. It’s fine.” She motions between the two of them. “You guys look great together.” 

Felicia and Peter both freeze, Felicia giving a quick glance to Peter before focusing back on Michelle. 

“Look sweetheart, I think you got the wrong idea--”

“I don’t have any ideas, it’s fine. You guys are fucking perfect together.” Michelle dismisses Felicia, looking back to Peter who looks… angrier than she’s seen him before. 

“What are you even--MJ, will you just--”

“Is everything okay?” Eddie and Ashley show up behind her, Michelle feeling slightly more grounded by their presence. 

“Yeah, it’s fine.” She looks back to Peter, seeing him fuming. “Just saying hi to my  _ roommate _ and his girlfriend.”

“Okay listen here sweetheart--”

“Don’t call me sweetheart--”

“MJ, we should go.” Ashley interjects but Felicia takes a step forward, Michelle returning it. 

“I’m just trying to clear some things--”

“Oh it looks perfectly clear to--”

“Felicia’s gay, MJ.” Peter almost yells, all four of them turning back to him as he stands. 

Michelle freezes, her brain short-circuiting as she blinks - turning back to Felicia who looks almost… bored. 

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Michelle snaps, feeling a trace sense of embarrassment.

Felicia laughs as Michelle’s comment, as if it was the silliest thing she’d ever heard which just sets Michelle further on edge. 

“Gay. Lesbian. Means I like girls, sweetheart.” She pointedly looks towards Peter before turning to Ashley and Eddie.

“Looks like we all got roped into an episode of Maury and these two clearly need to talk it out. Wanna dance?” 

Eddie looks interested even as Ashley pauses, sending a glance towards Michelle. For Michelle’s part, she’s still frozen - her mind still catching up to what Peter had said.

Felicia was gay. What did that mean to her? Why would she care? Why would he bring that up? 

But she can’t even try and deny it, can’t even try and explain it for any other reason than she’d been jealous - jealous of Felicia and Peter, jealous of their supposed relationship - and what was even more mortifying is that Peter had clearly seen it, enough that he’d talked to her about it and brought it out in the open for all of them - and several clubgoers - to hear. 

But that does nothing to erase the anger that Michelle feels about Peter not reaching out to her, giving her a gift and disappearing without a trace - the rational part of Michelle’s mind slowly whispering to her that phones worked both ways, that Peter didn’t know what the gift had meant, a whisper that she could’ve reached out to Peter too. 

Michelle doesn’t focus on that, focusing instead on Peter who looked furious - angry even if she couldn’t figure out why the hell  _ he _ was so pissed.

“Can we talk?” He spits out, Michelle standing up straighter - using her full height and heels to get the advantage. 

“Sure. Lead the way.” She answers sarcastically, Peter shaking his head as he turned - heading straight out of the club. Michelle doesn’t even think to check on Ashley and Eddie, too focused and upset as she followed Peter out of the club.

His shoulders are tense, watching him as they walked out of the club and into the cold December air. It’s freezing, Michelle immediately regretting the outfit she was wearing and the coat she had refused to put on. 

Peter seems to notice this, his anger disappearing for a second as he shrugs off his jacket and offers it to her. 

“I’m fine.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Take the damn jacket, MJ.” 

Maybe it’s something about his tone or the look on his face but Michelle does, putting it on without comment. 

The jacket is warm, Michelle hating how much she liked having it around her - the fact that it smelled like a mix of sweat and alcohol and  _ Peter _ , something she hadn’t realized she had missed until she was gone - a thought she immediately dismisses.

Peter doesn’t want her, doesn’t know her - and clearly never did, if he thought giving her some shitty gift from his pocket and never talking to her could be enough to--

“Why didn’t you come today?”

Michelle blinks, rubbing her hands together as Peter’s words throw her out of her thoughts.

“What?”

“You said you’d be okay to meet up, when I asked.” Peter lets out a laugh but there’s no humor in it, Michelle’s eyebrows furrowing as he pressed on. “But then you didn’t show. I know I messed up by not texting you earlier, not talking to you before but…” Peter sighs, throwing his hands up only to shove him in his pockets - Michelle noticing that his teeth were chattering. 

“I’m trying here, MJ. And I’m beginning to think that this is your way of telling me to stop.” 

“I never got a text.”

Peter gives her a look. “I thought you hated liars.”

“I did, I do.” Michelle goes for her phone, only to realize that Ashley likely still had it - in a clutch that she’d borrowed that Michelle had never gotten back from her. 

“My phone’s inside.”

Peter gets out his own phone, tapping it a few times until he got to their text thread - almost shoving it in her face. 

“Then who the hell sent me this?” 

Michelle reads the ‘okay sounds good.’ - mind whirring to try and figure out how the hell a message from her had been sent without her knowing it, if maybe Peter had been talking to someone else or if her number got switched. 

And then it hits her, thinking back to when Lizzy had taken her phone earlier to search for something about the cookies they were making.

* * *

“Squish, where’s your phone? My WiFi’s not working.” 

“If the WiFi’s not working for  _ yours _ , it’s not going to work for mine.” Michelle replied, rifling through the kitchen cabinets till she found the bottle of vanilla she was looking for.

“I know, I just think that--” Lizzy’s voice cuts off, Michelle not thinking of the silence as she looked for the sugar.

“How are my two favorite daughters doing?” Her dad said as he walked in from the bedroom, Michelle laughing. 

“Unless you got some big secret to share, we’re your  _ only _ daughters dad.” He laughed, Michelle smiling as he looked in the fridge.

“Did you get the butter yet?” Michelle shook her head.

“No, that was the next part. Still waiting for my little sous chef to get her ass in here.” Michelle turns back to Lizzy, seeing her tap something on her phone. 

“What are you doing?” 

Lizzy’s head snaps up, a grin on her face. “Planning world domination.”

Michelle rolls her eyes. “Clearly. Did you get the WiFi to work?”

Lizzy’s eyes gleam. “ _ Better _ . I got--”

“Lizzy, we gotta go!” Her mom comes in from the bedroom then too, Lizzy glancing back to her. 

“Wait, mom I--”

“Elizabeth, come on. You were the one who wanted to do the ice skating lessons. Jacket. Boots.  _ Now _ .” 

Lizzy looks torn, Michelle’s phone still in her hand before the look on their mom’s face is enough to make her set the phone down. “Mom, squish has to--”

“Mom’s right, I’ll be fine. Dad’ll help me hold down the fort till you get back right?” Her dad salutes, Michelle laughing.

“Scout’s honor.” 

Lizzy puts on her jacket haphazardly, their mother sighing as Lizzy tries to go back to the living room. 

“But squish, I need you to--”

“What I  _ need _ ,” their mom says, pushing Lizzy towards the door, “is for you to walk  _ out _ . Out the door. Let’s go.” 

Michelle laughs as Lizzy continues to protest, looking back to her dad.

“Someday she’ll learn that fighting with mom will never work.” Her dad smirks, winking at Michelle.

“Why? Not like you ever did.”

“Hey!” 

* * *

The memory of earlier - the panic in Lizzy’s voice, the smile she’d given as she held her phone in her hands - it all makes perfect sense to Michelle now, realizing that she never once thought to check through her messages, that she never saw Lizzy before leaving for Ashley’s house. 

Peter’s still staring back at her, taking Michelle’s silence as some kind of admission as he sighed. 

“Whatever, sorry I bothered you MJ. I got the message. You don’t have to explain.”

“Wait, Peter I didn’t--”

“What do you  _ want _ from me, MJ?” Peter takes his hand out of his jeans pocket. “Look, I know I fucked up alright? I should’ve, we should’ve talked about… before.” Peter’s cheek flush - from the memory of the two of them in his apartment or from the cold, Michelle doesn’t know. 

“Felicia said it was a dick move.” 

“Well if  _ Felicia _ said it.” Michelle snaps as Peter’s eyes darken.

“You don’t even know her.”

“I don’t have to. It doesn’t matter.”

“Clearly, it does.” Peter bites back, shaking his head. 

“Did you even open the gift I gave you?” He asks. 

Michelle’s anger returns just as quickly as it left, the cold air reminding her that Peter didn’t deserve it being focused on him even as she pressed forward. 

“Yeah, what the fuck was that even supposed to be? A bracelet? For what?” 

Peter says nothing, grinding his teeth as he searched her eyes. Michelle’s almost taken aback by the intensity of it, feeling like Peter’s seeing something in her that she doesn’t even want to see about herself. 

“If you don’t know, then I guess it doesn’t matter.” 

Michelle sees it then - understands immediately. It was an apology, sure - but not like Harry’s searching Peter’s eyes as he stares back into hers. 

Peter was reaching out, had clearly already tried - in some convoluted, indirect way. But whatever was going on, whatever he meant - he still hadn’t said anything to her, Michelle wondering how much she actually wanted him to. 

To tell her that he liked her, that he wanted to be with her - wanted to see if there was something between them. 

But as much as Michelle wants that, she also doesn’t - terrified that she’s still making it up in her head or that she’s missing something or that there’s something else, something far more sinister behind Peter’s open and honest eyes. 

She knows that there isn’t, knows it as well as she knows Peter Parker. 

But Michelle had fooled herself once and it had hurt like hell. 

She wouldn’t let herself be fooled again, not when Peter was so unwilling to speak the words to her - even if Michelle knows that she hadn’t expressed anything to him either - that him telling her how he feels would be a shot in the dark, a risk that clearly neither of them wanted to take. 

“I guess it doesn’t.” She whispers, seeing as Peter just grinds his teeth before nodding. 

“Yeah,” His voice breaks, Michelle seeing as he seemed to decide something for himself. “Yeah, I guess it doesn’t.”

They stare at each other, in a silence that gets more awkward and more painful the longer they sit in it until Peter speaks up.

“I’m… I’m gonna go. If you see Felicia--” He stops himself, shaking his head. “Never mind.” 

He brings his gaze back to her, Michelle feeling as if something was breaking between them - an irrational thought, knowing there hadn’t been anything there in the first place. 

“See you next year, MJ.” 

Before she can answer, Peter turns away - hands shoved into his pocket as he walks away from the club. 

Michelle’s frozen into place for a beat too long, realizing only when Peter’s faded out of sight that she still has his jacket on. 

A flood of conflicting emotions run through her - anger, hurt, remorse, an inexplicable sadness that she’d somehow messed something up, that they both had - but all Michelle can think of as she looks out into the street is how soft Peter’s jacket is against her skin, still warm from him having wearing it. 

It reminds her of what Peter’s arms had felt like wrapped around her as they kissed, how his hands had caressed her skin, how he’d looked at her in the few seconds before he brought his lips to hers. 

It hits her - suddenly and in waves. 

She likes Peter Parker. She likes him, so much more than she had ever planned to - so much that seeing him disappear makes her feel like she’s been sucker-punched. 

And Michelle had pushed him away, a perfect and terrible series of events and fuckups and miscommunications. 

And even if the look in Peter’s eyes had made her think that maybe he liked her too, the hurt and hesitation in them breaking a part of Michelle’s heart that she thought she didn’t still have - Michelle thinks to herself that it’s just her luck.

She’d been so intent on never allowing anyone to hurt her as deeply and as horribly as Harry did. 

And by pushing Peter away before they’d even had a chance to begin, Michelle thinks that in doing so - she’d only allowed Harry to hurt her once more. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I mean, you all _did_ ask for some resolution!!!!!!
> 
> :)
> 
> Don't worry my dudes, these kids still got a wild road ahead of them.


End file.
